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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Jesus Lived in a Police State

Those living through this present age of SWAT team raids, police
shootings of unarmed citizens, roadside strip searches, and invasive
surveillance might feel as if these events are unprecedented. Yet while
America may be experiencing a steady slide into a police state, it is
neither the first nor the last nation to do so.
Although technology, politics and superpowers have changed over time,
the characteristics of a police state and its reasons for being have
remained the same: control, power and money. Indeed, as I point out in
my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State,
a police state “is characterized by bureaucracy, secrecy, perpetual
wars, a nation of suspects, militarization, surveillance, widespread
police presence, and a citizenry with little recourse against police
actions.”

Just as police states have arisen throughout history, there have also
been individuals or groups of individuals who have risen up to
challenge the injustices of their age. Nazi Germany had its Dietrich
Bonhoeffer. The gulags of the Soviet Union were challenged by Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn. Martin Luther King Jr. went head-to-head with America over
racial segregation.

And then there was Jesus Christ, an itinerant preacher and
revolutionary activist, who not only died challenging the police state
of his day—namely, the Roman Empire—but provided a blueprint for civil
disobedience that would be followed by those who came after him. Yet for
all the accolades poured out upon Jesus, little is said about the harsh
realities of the police state in which he lived and its similarities to
modern-day America, and yet they are striking.

Secrecy, surveillance and rule by the elite. Much
like America today, with its lack of government transparency, overt
domestic surveillance, and rule by the rich, the inner workings of the
Roman Empire were shrouded in secrecy, while its leaders were constantly
on the watch for any potential threats to its power. And as the ruling
class and the wealthy class merged, the lower classes grew easily
distracted by “bread and circuses.”

Widespread police presence. The Roman Empire used
its military forces to maintain the “peace,” thereby establishing a
police state that reached into all aspects of a citizen’s life. In this
way, these military officers, used to address a broad range of routine
problems and conflicts, enforced the will of the state. Today SWAT
teams, comprised of local police and federal agents, are employed to
carry out routine search warrants for minor crimes such as marijuana
possession and credit card fraud.

Citizenry with little recourse against the police state. As
the Roman Empire expanded, personal freedom and independence nearly
vanished, as did any real sense of local governance and national
consciousness. Similarly, in America today, citizens largely feel
powerless, voiceless and unrepresented in the face of a power-hungry
federal government.

Perpetual wars and a military empire. Much like
America today with its practice of policing the world, war and an
over-arching militarist ethos provided the framework for the Roman
Empire, which extended from the Italian peninsula to all over Southern,
Western, and Eastern Europe, extending into North Africa and Western
Asia as well.

Martial law. The Romans relied increasingly on the
military to intervene in all matters of conflict, from small-scale
scuffles to large-scale revolts. Not unlike police forces today, with
their militarized weapons and “shoot first, ask questions later”
mindset, the Roman soldier had “the exercise of lethal force at his
fingertips” with the potential of wreaking havoc on normal citizens’
lives.

A nation of suspects. Just as the American Empire
looks upon its citizens as suspects to be tracked, surveilled and
controlled, the Roman Empire looked upon all potential insubordinates,
from the common thief to a full-fledged insurrectionist, as threats to
its power. Revolutionists were always considered guilty and deserving
of the most savage penalties, including capital punishment, as a means
of deterring others from challenging the power of the state. Jesus’
execution was one such public punishment.

Acts of civil disobedience by insurrectionists. Starting
with his act of civil disobedience at the Jewish temple, Jesus branded
himself a political revolutionary. Jesus’ attack on the money chargers
and traders can be seen as an attack on Rome itself, an unmistakable
declaration of political and social independence from Roman oppression.

Military-style arrests in the dead of night. Eerily
similar to today’s SWAT team raids, Jesus was arrested in the middle of
the night, in secret, by a large, heavily armed fleet of soldiers.Torture and capital punishment. Any one of the
charges leveled against Jesus—that he was a threat to the stability of
the nation, opposed paying Roman taxes and claimed to be the rightful
King—was enough to merit death by crucifixion, which was usually
reserved for the most extreme political crimes. As Professor Mark Lewis
Taylor observed, “The cross…served as kind of a public service
announcement that said, ‘Act like this person did, and this is how you
will end up.’”

Jesus—the revolutionary, the political dissident, and the nonviolent activist—lived and died in a police state.Any
reflection on Jesus’ life and death within a police state must take
into account several factors: Jesus spoke out strongly against such
things as empires, state violence and power politics. Jesus challenged
the political and religious belief systems of his day. And worldly
powers feared Jesus because he dared to speak truth to power in a time
when doing so often cost a person his life.

Unfortunately, the radical Jesus, the political dissident who took
aim at injustice and oppression and was nailed to a cross as a warning
to others, has been largely forgotten today, replaced by a congenial,
smiling Jesus trotted out for religious holidays but otherwise rendered
mute when it comes to matters of war, power and politics. Yet the
resounding theme of Jesus’ life and teachings is one of outright
resistance to war, materialism and empire. Ultimately, this is the
contradiction that must be resolved if the radical Jesus is to be an
example for our modern age.